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LOCATION EFFICIENCY:
HOUSEHOLD & TRANSPORTATION ENERGY USE BY LOCATION
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c Jonathan Rose Companies
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Sponsored by the EPA’s Office of Sustainable Communities, this graph and its supporting study were developed to illustrate the relationship between household energy consumption and residential development patterns. For the purpose of this illustration, residential development patterns are generally described by housing location and housing type. The graph also takes into account energy efficiency measures in homes and vehicles as factors that affect household energy use.
This study illustrates two key points about the effect of compact, location efficient development on energy consumption:
- A home’s location relative to transportation choices has a large impact on energy consumption. People who live in a more compact, transit-accessible area have more housing and transportation choices compared to those who live in spread-out developments where few or no transportation options exist besides driving. Choosing to live in an area with transportation options not only reduces energy consumption, it also can result in significant savings on home energy and transportation costs.
- Housing type is also a very significant determinant of energy consumption. Fairly substantial differences are seen in detached versus attached homes, but the most striking difference is the variation in energy use between single-family detached homes and multifamily homes, due to the inherent efficiencies from more compact size and shared walls among units. Moderate energy-efficient building technologies, such as those qualifying for Energy Star performance, also generate household energy savings that are notable but not as significant as the housing location and type.
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VISIT THE U.S. EPA's SITE TO VIEW THE ENTIRE REPORT
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Location Efficiency and Housing Type - Boiling it Down to BTUs
www.epa.gov/smartgrowth/location_efficiency_BTU.htm
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